The invention is based on an apparatus for driving and controlling electrical loads, in particular glow plugs. In a known apparatus of this type, glow plugs of an internal combustion engine of a motor vehicle are driven sequentially with a phase displacement. However, this type of driving has the disadvantage that each time a glow plug is switched on, the current rise can substantially decay before the next plug is switched on. With short pulse lengths, it is also possible that a plug is already switched off again before the next plug is switched on. This produces high-frequency interference in the vehicle supply system.